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BBC iPlayer: tips, tricks and other useful features
Researched and written by Nicholas Fearn The BBC has been at the forefront of broadcasting and entertainment since it launched in March 1922. Just over a decade ago, the broadcaster launched iPlayer, which quickly became one of the most popular ways to download and stream TV and radio shows in the UK. Available on a variety of smartphones, tablets, laptops and TVs, the platform allows you to catch-up on the BBC's extensive range of programming. Of course, it's come a long way since its launch in 2007. Not only has the BBC continued to add new shows and channels to iPlayer, the app itself has also undergone numerous redesigns and received new features over the years. More recently, it's placed an emphasis on 4K Ultra HD content, and BBC Three has become a digital-only channel. If you're new to the service or just want to watch the latest episode of Eastenders, here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of the BBC's popular streaming service.
The best commands for Google Home
Researched and written by Libby Plummer The Google Home speaker finally went on sale in the UK in April and while it's a neat little smart speaker, it has some catching up to do. The Amazon Echo has already managed to garner more than 10,000 skills and the Home has very few. While the search giant works with developers to build up its selection, there are still some very useful things you can do with the smart speaker. Here's a selection of what we think are the best.
This BMX bike sensor is ready to track your off-road adventures
There's no shortage of bike sensors that will track your performance. However, they usually assume that you're on a garden variety road bike. What if your definition of biking involves BMX races or trick jumps? Never fear -- you now have an activity tracker to call your own. Iddo has launched a crowdfunding drive for what it says is the world's first BMX bike sensor. The angry-looking add-on (seriously, it's a little metal skull) will capture 'boring' details like speed and GPS position, but it also includes a 9-axis motion sensor and an altimeter to detect your air time and tricks. The companion smartphone app will even score stunts, so you have an added incentive to master that bunny hop or tailwhip. If you're racing, Iddo will let you map tracks and measure your lap times.
Kill no-close-em Safari pages with AppleScript
I hate those pop-ups that hijack Safari even when I've enabled Settings > Security > Block Pop-up windows. Sure, I've edited my hosts file with Someonewhocare's updates to avoid them in the first place but even so, bad pages still happen. With a simple web search, you'll find a variety of conventional solutions for these situations. I prefer to close them automatically without interacting with pop-ups directly or force-quitting Safari. Here's where a simple AppleScript application can help. I use AppleScript to tell Safari to "close window 1", i.e. the frontmost window. This dismisses the problematic window on my behalf. I have this script saved to an application (File > Export > File Format > Application) and have docked it for easy access. When bad windows open, my solution is just a click away. Got another fix or an improvement to this one? Drop a note in the comments and share.
The Nexus Telegraph: The basics of crafting a WildStar build
There are few things I love so much as writing a column for June 30th only to find out on the 30th that the patch I'm discussing is going live on July 1st. You know, when it's too late to change anything. I really would have been happy to have found that out before the day. But, hey, WildStar's first patch came out, and now I've had a couple of weeks to explore it a bit. Am I happy with it? Sufficiently, yes, although I haven't yet digested it in full. For one month out from launch, I can't complain much. Of course, that's not the first thing that I want to talk about today. I want to talk about builds. Rather than giving you the absolute best-of-the-best builds for tanking and DPS and so forth, which I can't quite do, I want to help you figure out how to make a build that works. It's a satisfyingly interactive, and there are lots of very functional options however you choose to build your character.
Mac 101: quickly change volume input, output
Many Mac users have several input and output devices for sound. For example, I have a mic, external speakers and a set of headphones connected to my MacBook Pro pretty much all the time. I also use Soundflower for capturing audio from my Mac. I can make any one of them active via the sound System Preference. Or, I could use this trick, which is much faster. Just Option-click on the volume icon in the Menu Bar and presto! A list of available input and output devices appears. Just click the one you want and you're all set. Nice and fast.
How to completely hide any app or folder on your iPhone or iPad
Keeping prying eyes from poking around in your more precious apps is always a concern, especially for those of us with nosey friends or kids. Until now, keeping apps private meant hiding them in a folder somewhere, but wouldn't it be ideal to be able to hide apps entirely? Thanks to a funky trick in iOS 7.1, you can. Here's how: Here's our starting screen. Make sure you have a full page of apps and a full dock. Now you need to create a folder with the apps we wish to hide. We'll call this folder "Folder 1" for simplicity. In this example I'll be hiding the Facebook and Starbucks apps, but you can do this with absolutely any app on your phone that can be placed in a folder, including those pesky stock apps that refuse to be deleted. Next you need to nest Folder 1 within another folder, which we'll call "Folder 2." If you're not familiar with how to do this, check out our iOS 7.1 nested folder tutorial here. Once you have Folder 1 nested, you must remove the apps you placed in Folder 2, leaving just Folder 1 within Folder 2. You should now have what appears to be a blank folder on your home screen. You should now have one open space on your Home screen, but we need to fill that, so drag any random app you have into that spot. Now, go into Folder 2 and highlight Folder 1 so you can move it. Drag Folder 1 out of Folder 2 and down into the dock area. This will cause Folder 2 to disappear after a second, and as soon as it does, release Folder 1 in the dock. Instead of finding a new home on your screen it will disappear completely. We have now hidden the Facebook and Starbucks apps. You won't find them anywhere, on any screen or within any folder. Yet, you still have full access to them via the iOS search feature. Touch the middle of your home screen and pull down, revealing the search bar. Type in the name of the hidden app you wish to use and you'll find it's still there and can be used just like normal. Regret the decision to hide an app? You can easily bring back all of your hidden apps by either restarting the device or by going into the iOS settings menu, clicking the "Nike + iPod" app and activating, and then deactivating it. Once you've done so, all hidden apps will pop back onto the Home screen. As I said above, you can use this trick to hide any apps or folders you want, and still have full access to the apps via the search bar. YouTuber Videosdebarraquito uses a similar trick to hide stock apps using the Newsstand on the iPhone 4/4s, but our tutorial should work for anyone running iOS 7.1. Now enjoy your newfound power of secrecy, and don't get into any mischief.
Trials Frontier rides to iOS on April 10
Trials Frontier, one of the two upcoming games in the motorcycle-flipping series from developer RedLynx, will launch April 10 on iOS. The mobile entry in the series will roll to Android at a later, undisclosed date. Being the first Trials game on iOS and Android isn't Frontier's only departure for RedLynx, as the game is also set in a futuristic wild-west environment "after the fall of the Trials Fusion universe." Players unlock small villages that are all that remain of civilization in Frontier as well as new motorcycles, characters and upgrades for their bikes. Those that connect the game with Trials Fusion will receive bonus gear as well. Trials Frontier was first announced during publisher Ubisoft's E3 2013 press conference alongside Trials Fusion. Fusion is slated to launch April 16 on PC and entered a closed beta phase late last week. [Image: Ubisoft]
The 5 best pranks to play on anyone with an iPhone
Do you feel like having some fun at the expense of your iPhone-toting friends? There are a number of nasty things you can do to anyone with a mobile phone -- switching contact numbers, for example -- but there are a few special tricks you can pull on those with the iPhone, and here are the best of the best. Note: These tricks apply to iOS 7, so if your friend is still stuck on iOS 6 or earlier, you're out of luck. Auto incorrect This one has been around for a while, but it's still one of the most confusing for people who don't know about the iPhone's auto-shortcut feature. Grab the victims phone (preferably without them knowing) and head to the settings page. From here, go to "General" and then "Keyboard," and find the "Shortcuts" menu. Here you can manipulate your friend's text input to do pretty much whatever you want. You can set any single word to automatically change into another word or even an entire phrase. You can make some mild tweaks like changing "are" to correct to "our" and "there" to "they're," which will simply make your friend appear as though they never passed fifth grade English class, or you can get a bit more brutal... The old switcheroo This is one of the easiest to pull off and it takes just a few seconds. Under the Accessibility menu, invert the phone's colors and then back out to the home screen. Believe it or not, there are plenty of iPhone owners who don't even know that this feature exists, which will lead to a whole lot of confusion once they try to use their phone. Unclickable icons You're going to need at least a minute or two with the victim's phone for this, so make sure you won't get caught before you begin. Start by taking a screenshot of the user's home screen (home button + lock button). Then, hide all but one of the user's home page icons on another page or in a folder and tuck it away somewhere that it won't be seen unless searched for. Keep the top-left icon in place, or else the phone may push all the icons from the next page onto the home screen, which will ruin things. Now, set that home page screenshot as the home screen wallpaper. Ta-da! You've now made a home screen populated by unclickable icons! Note: If the user has the parallax 3D effect enabled, they might figure it out sooner than usual, but you should still get at least a few laughs out of it. The never-ending text This is a great trick you can play on an iPhone owner without ever needing to touch their smartphone. There's nothing that boosts an iPhone user's anticipation like the "your chat partner is typing" animation during an instant message conversation. The evil geniuses at Miscellaneous Mischief ripped that animation from the messaging app and created an animated gif out of it. Now you can send the image to your iPhone-owning friends and watch their frustration build as your "message" never comes through. Evil and easy; a perfect combination! Lock them in! This one requires access to the user's device and a few minutes of your time as well, but the results will definitely be worth it. First, go into the Accessibility menu and turn on Guided Access. Now go into whatever app you want to lock the victim into. Triple-click the home button to enable Guided Access, which will prevent the user from stopping the app or backing out to the home screen. The phone will prompt you for a passcode as well, so only you will be able to free your friend's phone from the app you have chosen. Want to really mess things up? Open a music app like Spotify, crank the volume all the way up, press play, then use Guided Access to block the areas of the screen that control the tunes. Now after you lock the app, there is no way to turn off the music. The phone won't respond to being put in silent mode or the volume controls on the side, and it also can't be turned off with the power button. Try this in a public place like a restaurant to really cause a scene. Or, you can just use the screen-blocking feature to write a cheeky message on the screen. [Header image credit: Siraf72]
Did you know you can change the direction of the iPhone Panorama feature?
iOS has always been about intuitiveness, but every once in a while, it assumes a little too much. That seems to be the case with the Panorama photo feature, which, at first glance, appears to only allow panoramas to be shot from left to right. If you were under this impression, it's totally understandable, but there is indeed a way to reverse it! Simply tap the large, white arrow on the panorama slider to reverse it direction. The arrow will flip to the right side of the screen and you can now record your panorama from right to left. Ta-da!
How to stretch your iPhone's battery as far as it can possibly go
We've all been in this situation before: You haven't plugged in your iPhone in a couple of days and now you have just a sliver of battery life left. Your phone has been warning you that it's near death, but you have nowhere to charge it. At this point, you don't care if your phone is the fastest or most powerful; you're waiting for an important call and you just want it to live as long as possible before it faints to a black screen. Are you ready to sacrifice almost everything that makes your iPhone a fantastic device for a few more precious moments of power? Then let's get to it! You'll be doing all of your work in the settings menu, so once you've got it open, here's what you need to do: WiFi = Off Bluetooth = Off Cellular -> Cellular Data = Off (this will also turn off LTE automatically) Privacy -> Location Services = Off Wallpaper & Brightness -> Auto-Brightness = Off (Slide your brightness all the way down as well) General -> Background App Refresh = Off (Keeps apps from gobbling power in the background) General -> Accessibility -> Reduce Motion = On (No need to waste juice on 3D flair) Sounds -> Vibrate on Ring = Off Sounds -> Vibrate on Silent = Off Messages -> iMessage = Off (iMessage can require more data, and power, than texting) Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Fetch New Data -> Push = Off Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Fetch New Data -> Fetch = Manually (No data use unless you say so) With these settings tweaked, your iPhone won't be able to send or receive data either by WiFi or cellular connection, so keep that in mind. Your iPhone can still play games that don't require an internet connection, send texts, take photos and video and, of course, make and receive calls. And with nearly every bell and whistle removed, it should live as long as physically possible.
The Art of Wushu: Tricks of the royal chains
Soul Chasing Claw is one of the most common and hated styles in Age of Wushu, and last week we went over many ways to counter it. However, on the flip side there are a lot of options for trickery. Like most ranged styles, Soul Chasing Claw is devastating as a switch to a melee style. Its main weaknesses are well-known, so cunning is needed against a skilled enemy. Fortunately, it has a lot of advantages. The chain pull is near-instantaneous, so you only need the right opening. It's technically possible to pull people out of the startup of moves like Submerge the Lotus, though it's kind of difficult in practice since the pull has a minimum range. It's a powerful tool, and we'll discuss a lot about getting the most out of it today.
This is the most important Mavericks keyboard shortcut you'll discover all day
Mavericks' new Control-Command-Space bar shortcut came up once again during conversation in the TUAW chat room this morning. Once again, I was surprised that this cool little trick isn't universally known. As a public service announcement, we'd like to continue to spread the word about this delightful shortcut. Get yourself over to any text entry field on your Mavericks Mac and give it a try by pressing Control and Command together and then tap the space bar. The resulting pop-up provides easy access to smilies and emoji that you can drag to your favorite app. To Emoji and Beyond There are a few really cool (and not immediately obvious) additional uses for this that you might not be familiar with, even if you're already using the pop-up. See the up-arrow at the top-center of the pop-up? Pull the dialog away from the text entry and the entire window switches to a free-floating Character entry palette, like you see below. This allows you to move the palette out of the way, but keep it on-hand for repeated use. Very handy, especially when sending an iMessage to your BFF. Searching for Characters Now see the button at the top-right of the palette? A single click converts the palette into the more classic form of the Characters window you might be familiar with from OS X Mountain Lion and earlier. Use the search field to find exactly the kind of pictograph you're looking for. Keep your search phrase as general as possible. A search for "triangle," for example, returns a lot more possibilities than "left triangle." Once you've found the item you wish to insert, just drag it from the center pane within the Characters window to whatever text you're editing. Adding Favorites You can click the Add to Favorites button for any pictograph to add often-used symbols to the main display of your Characters palette. Once added, these items appear beneath the most recently used items list. To add or remove items from your favorites list, you need to be using the old-style Characters window, which you access from that top-right button. Use the Add to Favorites and Remove from Favorites buttons when you view individual items. After defining at least one favorite, a complete list of favorites appears at the top-left of the Characters window, just below the Recently Used list. All favorites edits are reflected in the pop-up, but there's one more step you need. To return to the pop-up, don't forget to revert from the classic view by once again clicking the button at the top-right of the Characters window. Unicode Information for Programmers But wait! There's more! If you right-click (or control-click) the character, you can copy the character info to the system pasteboard. Then just paste it into TextEdit or your notepad. 😁 GRINNING FACE WITH SMILING EYES Unicode: U+1F601 (U+D83D U+DE01), UTF-8: F0 9F 98 81 From there, you gain easy access to the exact Unicode information for the symbol, which (if you're a developer, who needs this kind of thing) is an absolute gift for programming. As promised, here's that most important tip for today: Search the Character Editor for "PILE OF POO" and favorite it for easy access. You'll be glad you did.
Fellow players share their favorite WoW tips and tricks
With a hefty 200+ tips and more still rolling in, our recent call for helpful gameplay tips and tricks is ready for your perusal. This outpouring of advice goes way beyond pointing out that you can eat and drink in game at the same time. (That little trick's become a default example of a handy tip -- so you've heard that here and you knew it already, right?) Readers are sharing advice on how to escape Gilneas with a level 1 character, confidence- and skill-building tips for new tanks and healers, recommendations for favorite addons, and even tricks for efficient garden weeding. Who doesn't love a good efficiency tweak? Seriously, go bask in the golden rays of knowledge warming the comments of this post. You'll wonder how you ever got by without knowing this stuff!
Use your iPhone to impress your friends with these cool calculator tricks
The iPhone calculator is great for crunching numbers in a pinch, but you can also use it to have some fun with your friends and family. Here are some cool calculator tricks you can use to find someone's phone number, guess their age and astound them with your math wizardry. If you have any tricks up your own sleeve, please share them in the comments. Can I Get Your Phone Number, please? This trick works only in the US with 7-digit phone numbers. Make sure you hit enter/equal between each step. Open your iPhone calculator Type in the first 3 digits of your phone number (not your area code) (So you would type in 759 if your number was 801-759-1234) Multiply that number by 80 (759 x 80 = 60,720) Add 1 (60,720 + 1 = 60,721) Multiply by 250 (60,721 x 250 = 15,180,250) Add last four digits of your phone number (15,180,250 + 1234 = 15,181,484) Add last four digits of your phone number again (15,181,484 + 1234 = 15,182,718) Subtract 250 (15,182,718 - 250 = 15,182,468) Divide number by 2. (15,182,468 ÷ 2 = 7,591,234 -- which is your phone number!) The Secret of 73 This trick makes it appear that you can predict the future. Give it a whirl and see if it impresses a crowd. Write the number 73 on a piece of paper, fold it up, and give it to an unsuspecting friend. Tell your friend select a four-digit number and enter it twice into a calculator. Inform your friend that the number is divisible by 137 and ask him or her to verify using the calculator. Tell your friends to divide the result by the original four-digit number. Astound your friend by asking him or her to unfold the paper. Voila! The answer on the calculator should match the number on the paper -- 73! The Human Calculator, aka the 3-7-13-37 Trick This trick will make it appear that you are the world's fastest human calculator. To make it realistic, hand friend the iOS calculator and grab a piece of paper and pencil for yourself. Have your friend pick any 2 digit number (82, for example) Tell your friend to multiply this number by 3 and hit enter/equal (82 x 3 = 246) Then multiply that result by 7 and hit enter/equal (246 x 7 = 1,722) Then multiply that result by 13 and hit enter/equal (1722 x 13 = 22,386) Then multiply that result by 37 and hit enter/equal (22386 x 37 = 828,282) While you friend is typing numbers furiously on your iPhone, you can write down the first number three times and find the answer in a matter of seconds. (82-82-82 = 828282= 828,282) Guess The Numbers! This trick requires some work on your part. Just do the quick math at the end to baffle your friends with your math prowess. Ask your friend to select two numbers, each of which is less than 10. (8 and 5, for example) Tell your friend to choose either of the numbers and to multiply it by 5. (8 x 5 = 40) Then tell your friend to add 7 to this result. (40 + 7 = 47) Multiply the resulting sum by 2. (47 x 2 = 94) Add it to the other number that was first selected. (94 + 5 = 99) Have your friend tell you the result. (The answer is 99!) Now it is your turn. Take your friend's answer and subtract 14. You should get a two digit number -- the digit in the ten's place is the number that was multiplied by 5 and the digit in the one's place is the other number chosen at the beginning. (99 - 14 = 85) Find The Deleted Digit Like the "Guess The Numbers" above, this trick requires some quick calculating on your part. Just do the calculation at the end, and you'll have your friends scratching their head wondering how you did that. Ask your friend to write down any number that is at least four digits long. Ask them to hide it, so you can't see it. (4798, for example) Tell your friend to add the individual digits (4 + 7 + 9 + 8 = 109) Then tell them to subtract that answer from the first number (4789 - 109 = 4680) Tell your friend to cross out one digit from this answer. It can be any digit they want, except zero. (Let's cross out 6, so 4680 becomes 4x80) Ask your friend to read out the remaining digits (He or she should say 4-8-0) Now it is your turn to do some math. Add up the digits your friend just read aloud (4 + 8 + 0 = 12). Find the next highest number that is divisible by 9. (18, in this case). Subtract your sum (12) from the number that can be divided by 9, (18 - 12 = 6). The result (6) is the value of the digit that was crossed out. Age By Chocolate This is an oldie, but goodie. Its hook is the chocolate theme -- who can resist the allure of this sweet treat, even if it means revealing your age? Tell your friend to select the number of times a week that they would like to have chocolate. The number has to be more than one, but less than 10. Use some cajoling to get them to pick a number in that range. (Let's say it is 6 times a week, for example) Multiply this number by 2 (6 x 2 = 12) Add 5 to the result (12 + 5 = 17) Break out the chocolate calculator to multiply the result by 50 (17 x 50 = 850) Ask your friend if they already had their birthday this year. If they did, then tell them to add 1763 to their result. If they haven't, then tell them to add 1762. (850 + 1763 = 2613) Note: These numbers (1763, 1762) make the trick work in the year 2013. Use 1764 and 1763 in 2014. Now subtract the four digit year of their birthday. (2613 - 1970 = 643) The resulting value will be a three digit number (643). The hundred's place will be the number of times per week you want chocolate (6!), while the remaining digits will reveal your age (43yo)!
Your favorite World of Warcraft tips
One of the most enjoyable things about playing an MMO like WoW over the long haul is the way you can continue to pick up handy little tips and tricks that streamline your playing. Sometimes they're significant pointers that help you make headway in a particular raid, like the advice from Adam's two-part tips and tricks feature for hunters in Siege of Orgrimmar. But sometimes the wisdom you glean is much more basic -- like realizing you can eat and drink at the same time. Pull up a chair and a big, thirsty cup of something to drink, and let's share some of the light bulb moments from our own games recently. What neat trick of the trade did you most recently discover in game? Do you have any advice, tips, or tactics on current raids or quest lines worth sharing? Let's talk!
Apple HQ could have Google deliver them some iPads, and I hope they do
Today, Google announced that its Google Shopping Express service -- which will run to select area stores, take care of your shopping list and then deliver the items to your doorstep -- is now available to virtually all of San Francisco as well as a huge chunk of the peninsula all the way down to, and including, San Jose. You pay a small fee for your delivery depending on how large your order is, but overall it seems like a very convenient service... even if you work at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino. Based on Google's current coverage area for the service, only part of Cupertino is eligible for delivery, but after searching for Apple's address -- 1 Infinite Loop -- we discovered that it is indeed covered. Apple isn't usually known for pranking, unless you count a bit of rickrolling, but if I were Tim Cook, I'd make a Shopping Express list of a few iPads and a dozen iPods from Office Depot Target. Then, when the driver(s) arrive with the items, tell them they can keep it all to share with their coworkers back at home base.
iOS 7 video tip: How to view list mode in Calendar
Earlier today while Doc Rock and I were rockin' the TUAW TV Live show, I noticed a post by our editor-in-chief Victor Agreda, Jr. in which he bemoaned the fact that he could no longer get into list view for his calendar. Doc and I both figured that there had to be a way to do that, so we quickly started punching buttons on our iPhones to see where the list view was hiding. Doc suggested buying Readdle's Calendars5 app to get a list view, but I found the free answer before we told Victor to spend five bucks. The answer? Click on the search icon in the Calendar app, AKA The Magnifying Glass. It does a "search all" of your calendars and displays the results in a long list. You can also, of course, narrow down the list results by typing in a search criteria like "TUAW TV". The short video below (which can be expanded to full screen), demonstrates how the calendar list mode appears with a simple tap.
The Mog Log Extra: Starting an Arcanist in Final Fantasy XIV
My initial plan for last Saturday's edition of The Mog Log was foiled by the simple fact that getting to Limsa Lominsa was much more difficult than it needed to be. There was no way to get to Limsa, unlock Arcanist, level Arcanist, write a column of a thousand words or more, have it proofed, and have it readable by the time that you fine people expect to read something. My apologies are deep and heartfelt. Despite that fact, once I finally did get to Limsa, I poured myself into playing Arcansit as if it was my job. Which it sort of was. And I found that to my pleasant surprise, despite the fact that the class is everything I usually dislike in a class, I was having an absolute blast. I wouldn't say it's my favorite class in Final Fantasy XIV, but it's up there. But you don't care too much about that, do you? You want to know how to play one. Luckily, I can tell you that, too.
Neverwinter Days: The 14 guides you need to read
I've had a strange start with Neverwinter, to be honest. While I did get in on the 25th with the early-early crowd, shortly thereafter I had to boogie on off to a vacation that canceled out eight days of soft launch gaming time. So even though I got an early start, I'm probably behind many of you -- even those who started on the 30th. That's OK; I'm not in a rush. I'm not the type to get into a speed race or feel the compulsion to become an instant expert by the end of week one. My experience so far has been feeling out what Neverwinter has to offer, mostly by going through the solo quest line, participating in skirmishes, and queuing up for dungeon runs when time permits. And I'm enjoying myself so far, although I still have that "slightly lost" feeling that comes with exploring a brand-new MMO. I need to learn how to create Foundry missions and I haven't even touched professions yet. Maybe you're like me. Maybe you assume that everyone already knows the ins and outs of the game as though he's been playing it for years, while you're an ignorant noob wandering the streets. I don't think you're alone if that's the case, and to help both you and me out, I've done some research to find the top 14 most helpful threads, sites, and articles that all fledgling Neverwinter adventurers should at least skim over.
